The Conservation Movement

Between 1850 and 1920, concern for the natural world emerged as a complex and broadly popular political and cultural movement in the United States. Newly urbanized Americans were becomingly increasingly aware of the importance of nature as an economic, aesthetic, and spiritual resource, especially as they became convinced that nature's resources were imperiled by industrialization. This movement led to unprecedented public and private initiatives to ensure the conservation of natural resources and the preservation of wildlife and of land. By the turn of the twentieth century, Wisconsin had become a center of conservation thinking and activity in the United States.... more...

Original Documents and Other Primary Sources

The CCC tackles forest fires in Northern Wisconsin, 1934

Increase Lapham surveys Wisconsin's trees, 1858

Madison boasts the nation's first fish hatchery

Recollections of John Muir in Prairie du Chien, 1860-61.

A conservation education camp opens in Eagle River

The Forestry Commission urges the creation of a state forest system, 1898